What Is Role Theory?

Role theory is a social psychology theory that explains that social relations have an important influence on human behavior. It emphasizes the social impact aspects of human behavior rather than the psychological aspects. Think that man is both a product of society and a contribution to society. It is a social psychological theoretical orientation that attempts to explain the generation and change of social psychology and behavior from the attributes of human social roles. ^[1]

"Role theory" is not a complete and rigorous theoretical system, but a study focusing on the core concept of "role" from different areas of knowledge covered by this name. Relevant practical research scholars have jointly contributed to the so-called "role theory". ^[2]

The first to introduce the role concept to social psychology was GH Mead. ^[1]

The representative of structural role theory is Linton. He believes that the role concept is used as the cornerstone for constructing its theoretical system of social structure and social organization. "Structural role theorists believe that society is a network of various interconnected positions or positions in which individuals play their respective roles in this system. For one, each group, each type of status, Can distinguish different expectations about how to assume obligations. Therefore, social organizations are ultimately composed of a network of different status and expectations. ^[2]

Process role theorists, represented by Turner, take social interaction as the basic starting point, and conduct research on issues such as role playing, role expectation, role conflict, and role tension around the role playing process in interaction. ^[2]

Role theory role selection

Refers to assumptions about one's own and the roles of others. Meade put forward the role theory in forming his self theory and symbolic interaction theory. He believes that the development of human social self is selected through roles. Because people have experience from the outside world, they learn to conceive themselves as an object, and they have developed their own feelings and attitudes towards themselves, which leads to self-awareness. The degree of self-development depends on the extent to which people can take the opinions of others and treat themselves like others treat themselves. He believes that conceiving in the role of others and observing oneself from the perspective of the role of others is a necessary condition for the smooth realization of interpersonal interaction. This is the meaning of Mead's role selection. Little children learn appropriate behaviors through this kind of psychological activity, while adults use role selection to improve their communication efficiency. ^[2]

Role theory

Refers to behaviors that are displayed in accordance with conventional expectations, that is, actual actions that individuals take in accordance with the expectations of others. W. Kutu not only distinguishes between role selection and role play, but also distinguishes between two different types of role play: role playing and playing the role. The former refers to the role that an individual actually plays in life, and the latter refers to temporarily playing a specific role, such as acting. An actor plays both an actor's professional role and a certain drama role at some point. ^[2]

Role-playing has another use in social psychology as a method of simulation research. When adopting this method, the subject of the experiment is told to the subject in advance, to obtain their consent, and then the subject is required to play a role in the simulated situation and act in the simulated situation as in the real situation, so as to obtain a similar real situation Psychological effects. ^[2]

People are trained and educated by role rules in the process of socialization, and deviations from social role rules are subject to social exclusion and sanctions. People learn to play various roles in their lives, such as the role of children, the role of students, the role of men and women, the role of employees and leaders, and so on. These roles allow people to interact with others in appropriate ways in different situations. Children's role games are one of the important means of personal socialization. ^[2]

Does a person lose self when playing a role that meets the expectations of others? Everyone learns to play various roles in a certain culture through training, imitation, and identification. As long as people truly believe in their role and believe that they should play it perfectly, their actions are real and their ego and role are unified. Only when people don't believe and don't think they should play a certain role, and only play a certain role in order to meet the expectations of others, will there be unreal role-playing, self and role division. According to social psychologist S. Jurad, although such a person is out of the need to obtain the recognition of others, in fact they often neither get the recognition of others nor their own recognition. ^[2]

Role theory role conflict

A person can play multiple roles at the same time, and can maintain harmony between the roles. But sometimes role conflicts also occur. For example, a professional woman's professional role sometimes conflicts with her role as a mother; when a student is entering college, his role as an independent college student and his role as a parent's child may also conflict. ^[2]

In role theory, role conflicts are generally divided into two types: inter-role conflicts and intra-role conflicts. The previous example is the conflict between roles. Conflicts between roles are often related to different or even conflicting requirements for different roles, and individuals cannot meet all of these role requirements at the same time. Intra-role conflicts are usually related to the different demands that different groups have on the avatars of the same role. ^[2]

Role expectations are not static and change with the times. For example, expectations for male and female roles have changed significantly. According to Jurad, obedience to stereotyped characters is one of the important reasons for mental and physical disorders. Often thinking about how individuals play different social roles can help maintain physical and mental health. ^[2]

Role theory role construction

For Turner, role understanding is role building. People construct roles in three senses: first, they usually face a loose cultural structure, at which time they must construct a role to play; second, they assume that others are also playing role, so they try to construct a hidden The role behind one's behavior; third, in all social situations, people try to construct a role for themselves, mainly by giving hints to others and confirming a role. In this way, interaction becomes the connection point between role comprehension and role-playing. Benefit both sides of the interaction. ^[2]